The Joker
The Joker is a psychopathic, mass murdering, schizophrenic clown with zero empathy. He is allegedly well-known for being a criminal mastermind of the Gotham City criminal underworld and is intent to have Batman captured. He shows no remorse or no internal regret of murdering innocent civilians. He is portrayed by Heath Ledger, who died after the film was completed and won an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his performance as The Joker a year later. Biography Origins The Joker does not seem to be originated from anywhere. According to his capture, no traces were found no where - as no one doesn't know he is. Despite this, he does have family - but does not have any touch with them. Batman Begins Shortly after the death of Ra's al Ghul, Batman discussed with Lieutenant James Gordon the effect that he had made on Gotham City since his first appearance. Gordon then revealed that a criminal with "a taste for theatrics" recently committed a double homicide and an armed robbery, leaving behind a Joker playing card as a "calling-card", indicating that The Joker is coming near into the Gotham City criminal underworld. Gordon also warned that just as escalation occurs in terms of the police force against crime, so might the scale and style of criminality change in reaction to Batman's appearance. The Joker would orchestrate the theft of a large shipment of ammonium nitrate from the Gotham Docks. The explosive chemical was saved for storage in the Gotham General Hospital and on two passenger ferries some time later. In addition, he also frequently attends the various heists and crimes his gang commits while disguised as one of the accomplices, which is believed to be at least partially where he got his name from. The Dark Knight Gotham City National Bank Robbery The Joker and his accompliances robbed the Gotham National Bank months after the events of Batman Begins. The Joker disguised himself under the alias of "Bozo", wearing a mask during the robbery, as he and two of his allies robbed the main lobby as the others opens the vault. Many of his crew are killed by one another. When the bank's manager confronts them with a shotgun, he shoots Chuckles dead right before he is wounded in the knee. A bus comes along crashing through the bank, killing Grumpy in the process. The unidentified bus driver gets off to load the duffle bags in the bus. He asks "What happened to the rest of the guys?" to Bozo, which the latter shoots him dead with his full-automatic Glock 17 machine pistol. As he is about to leave, the manager chastises him for killing his accompliances and lack of honor. Bozo shoves a canister into the manager's mouth and reveals himself as The Joker. The latter departs with the money and shotgun, with the manger being either killed or rendered unconscious from the gas fumes of the canister that has been pulled off. The Mob and The Clown Meeting the Mob Right after the robbery, The Joker unexpectedly arrives at a meeting presented by Lau, a Chinese accountant-turned-crime lord via video conference, with crime lords Sal Maroni, The Chechen and Gambol, the three who decided to form a truce. The Joker overhears them and fakes a laugh about a "bad joke". He pulls out a pencil to do a "magic trick" and make the pencil "disappear". Gambol, the African-American crime lord who has a dislike towards Joker, sends one of his men to take him out. The latter then kills Gambol's man by shoving him head-first to the pencil. He then proposed of Batman's interference was the primary result towards the election of Harvey Dent, and has offered to kill him as he and his men wants to receive Lau's half of money that he has secured for himself from Gotham City to Hong Kong. Also, he knows that Lau would betray his ties if arrested, prompting Lau to excludes himself of the camera. The Chechen and Maroni becomes interested in The Joker's proposal of The Batman and offer to take him out, but Gambol is the only one who doesn't. Due to the former's lack of respect, the latter tries to attack him but The Joker reveals that there is several gernades packed inside his coat. A frustrated Gambol then incloses a bounty on The Joker: $500,000 for him dead or $1,000,000 for him alive so "he can teach him some manners". The Joker then leaves as quick as possible. Gambol's Death Later, in a perfect act of revenge, The Joker hires bounty hunters to help him fake his own death and to have his 'dead' body being brought to Gambol. Gambol then promises $500,000 to the hunters before The Joker awakens, holding the former with a knife to the mouth as the bounty hunters holds Gambol's men at gunpoint. The Joker tells Gambol a story of origins about his scars on his mouth, where he had received through psycholigical torture and savage imitidation, thus creating his traditional Gasglow smile. After this, he cuts Gambol's mouth, killing him. He then breaks a pool stick in half for the remains of Gambol's men to "join his team" but for "one spot". He puts the pool stick on the floor and orders them to "make it fast", indicating that Gambol's men must fight to the death until only one is left. Murdering Innocents and Threaten the City Hired for Murder When Lau is captured in Hong Kong by Batman, The Chechen and Sal Maroni finally decides to hire The Joker to kill Batman. At first, he videotapes a Batman impersonator name Brian Douglas, where he mocks him for his actions and belief, which terrorizes and humiliates him. Then he proceeds to murder him, hanging his body and leaving him in white makeup and joker cards outside the mayor's office. Then, the media airs the videotape murder, revealing that he will murder innocents day by day if Batman doesn't turn himself in. Batman refuses, prompting The Joker to kill Janet Surillo via car bomb and Commissioner Gillian B. Loeb via poisoned intoxicated scotch. Party Ambush Joker then arrives at a fundraiser held at the penthouse of Bruce Wayne, among his men. He terrorizes the guests to find Harvey Dent and when he is about to murder the guests, he encounters Rachel Dawes, who he charmingly taunts and terrrorizes. Bruce Wayne, in his Batman disguise, arrives unidentified to take out The Joker. He and The Joker fights, but his accompliances helds him down, having the latter performing few blows before having his held. The Joker manages to escape by throwing Rachel off the balcony, which Batman eventually saves her before she hits the ground. Funeral Ambush After killing two innocents reminiscent to Harvey Dent's names, at the public funeral of Commissioner Gillian B. Loeb, The Joker, without his traditional makeup, and his men, in disguise as the police honor guardsman decide to murder the mayor of Gotham. As the honor guardsman fires their guns up in the air (a tradition at police funerals), The Joker surprisingly turns his gun and opens fire, missing the mayor and instead hitting Gordon. The Joker manages to escape as his men are being captured by the cops. The Assault Later, during Harvey Dent's transport to a re-location, The Joker and his men arrives, slaughtering a GCPD officer via shotgun. He then attacks the caravan via his primary weapons (Glock 17 - fully automatic, his sawed-off shotgun, and even a RPG). Then, Batman arrives to stop the assault. When he chases him, when The Joker leads him to a trap, he is crashed as he does not want to kill him. As the latter attempts to unmask Batman, Gordon, in a SWAT team outfit and is revealed to hoax his own death, arrives and arrests The Joker. Joker's Arrest Interrogation At the police station, The Joker waits in his cell. He is surprised to find that Gordon is newly promoted to Commissioner of the Gotham City Police Department for his efforts of capturing the madness mastermind, thus The Joker sarcastically claps. Then, The Joker is interrogated by Batman. Batman beats him in attempt to be provided with information, but The Joker is unshaken, laughing the pain off. He reveals to Batman that Harvey Dent and Rachel Dawes were captured and re-located to different abandoned buildings, which are rigged with bombs. He also admits that he could never kill Batman. Batman leaves him to save them both as he is left to be watched by a guard. The guard then attempts to attack the Joker, but he is then taken hostage by him. One of the policemen gives him a cellphone, activating a bomb surgically planted into one of his men's stomach in the building, prompting The Joker to escape. Then, Rachel was killed while Harvey was saved, only to leave him disfigured from the building's fire. When he escape, he took the incarcerated Lau with him. Gordon learns that The Joker wanted to be captured. The Joker sets up a meeting with The Chechen. The former was granted his reward of the mob's half of the money. However, he decides to burn the money and Lau was burned alive among the money. He betrayed the mobster and took individual control of his men as he states that it's not about money but it's about sending the message. He calls the GCN to state that the city is uninterested without Batman. He threatened to blow up a hospital, prompting the GCPD to interfere. Corruption of Harvey Dent Hospital Corrupting the White Knight The Joker arrives at the hospital, disguised as a nurse during the massive evacuation. The Joker shoots a police officer dead when he comes to warn him to evacuate. He visits the recently disfigured Harvey Dent, who tries to attack him. He apologizes to him about Rachel's death and introduces the former district attorney to "schemers", who believes are the truest of evil men and to prove his argument, also names "soldiers" and "gangbangers", to held the responsibility for Rachel's sudden death towards Gordon, Batman, criminals, and corrupted cops. He gives Harvey a gun and uses his half-scarred coin to decide fate towards them as he has Harvey point the gun towards his head. Harvey makes The Joker his first, flipping the coin. He tells that if it lands on his clean side, he lives, and to the scarred side, he dies. The Joker is spared. He leaves the hospital, detonating it. The hospital doesn't fully explode, much to the latter's pause. As he presses the button numerously, the hospital's bombs works and the hospital is destroyed. The Joker enters a school bus where his men have news reporters and civilians hostage. The Ferries Threat The Joker declared that he would rule the streets and that anyone left in Gotham would be subjected to his rule. He told people they could leave now but that he would have a surprise for them in the tunnel and on the bridge, which people then avoided, using instead two ferries, one ship full of ordinary civilians and one of criminals, as Gordon feared the Joker would want to recruit them. However, the Joker had loaded each of them with explosives. In hopes of showing everyone how evil and corrupt they can be, he gave the passengers of each ship the detonator to the bombs to the other and offers both survival if they detonate the other ferry. If they didn't choose by midnight, the Joker would blow up both ships. The Skycraper Batman later discovered that The Joker is located in an unfinished skyscraper alongside his gang. However, the "gang" are actually hostages with their hands taped to unloaded weapons and are forced to wear clown masks and the "hostages" are actually the gangmembers. Batman arrives, taking down both the thugs and the Gotham City SWAT team as he saves the savages. He confronts The Joker, who unleashes three dogs to attack the Bat. Batman defeats the dogs and engages a battle with the villain. However, he is overpowered and is pinned under a scaffolding. The Joker explains that he is filled with glee for the ferrie's deadline. However, the civilian ferries and the prisoner ferries refused to detonate each other - one civilian voted but refused as one of the prisoners stepped in and convinced the cops to give the detonator to him as he throwed it out. The Joker becomes disappointed, bringing a detonator to blow both the ferries. Before he can blow them up, he tries to tell Batman his origins of his Glasglow smile and scars. Batman uses his wrist-blades to wound The Joker and throws him off the balcony. The Joker begins cackling as he falls towards his death, but Batman captures him via grapple gun. He pulls The Joker up. Ace in the Hole Much to his disappointment, The Joker cackles about Batman being incorruptible with acknowledgement. He says that Harvey Dent is no longer the "White Knight" since he had convinced the district attorney to become the vigilante. The Joker states that Harvey was his "ace in the hole" to incur that the citizens, cops, mobsters and more are corruptible enough. Batman becomes extremely enraged of what the clown has done to corrupt Harvey as the Bat leaves. The Joker starts to laugh maniacally with him still dangling upside down and is then approached by the SWAT team, indicating that he was apprehended. Quotes Personality The Joker claimed to not be insane, but rather just "ahead of the curve". This may have been legitimately true, in the sense that he seems to subscribe to a more morally nihilistic mindset, yet he still exhibited many symptoms of various failings of mental health. The Joker was described as having "zero empathy", which is shown throughout as being true. When Batman is throwing the Joker around the room and attacking him, demanding for the location of Rachel and Harvey, he takes the assault with pleasure as he laughed the pain off him while being beaten by the Batman. Similarly, when one of his minions got electrocuted in his attempt at removing Batman's mask, he proceeded to laugh hysterically, kick the minion, then mocked him by making noises similar to that of someone being electrocuted, before spitting on him and resorting to his attempt at removing the mask himself. Along with being extremely sadistic, the Joker seems to have very little care for his own safety, such as when he was telling Batman to run him over with his Batpod, and when Batman threw him off a skyscraper building to his supposed death and he did nothing but laugh, although both could have also been due to the Joker believing that either Batman would not directly murder him or that he would still 'win' by provoking Batman into proving him right by forcing the Dark Knight to commit murder. Similarly, when Gambol attempts to have the Joker killed during a mob meeting, the Joker also revealed that he wired himself with explosives, having anticipated the possibility that he'd be gunned down during his meeting. The most notable example in his utter lack of self-preservation, is when in the hospital, he gives Harvey Dent, after disfiguring him, and killing his girlfriend Rachel, a gun, and forcibly points it at his head, gambling his life on the chance that Dent would adopt his philosophy of anarchy. Though, subtly, he kept his finger in front of the hammer of the gun, which would keep it from firing. He exhibits various symptoms of an antisocial personality, blatantly disregarding laws and social norms far beyond standard deviant behavior since he doesn't have no rules for himself or his fellow gang members. The Joker also has a low level of inhibition and a relentless drive to disturb the status quo. He is driven by something other than money: he complains that the criminals of the mob are just seeking a profit and that the city deserves "a better class of criminal", namely himself. While The Joker does attempt to take control of the city, recruits mob henchmen that he already encountered from other mobsters, he appears to hold his philosophy of chaos higher than himself. He describes himself as merely an "agent" of chaos (in his speech to convince Harvey Dent to let go of his beliefs so he could prove in his ultimate plan that even the most noble of men can sink down to the Joker's level). He also doesn't actually care about money, as evidenced by his burning of the mob's money that he earned to recover Lau in front of the Chechen and stating that his actions aren't "about money." However, he did see some usefulness of money, as evidenced by the implication that he used the money he stole from Gotham National Bank to create his custom suit, acquire his equipment and weaponry, and hire others to form his own gang as the mob's agents were simply used as a means by Joker to gain control of Gotham's infrastructure and cripple the mobs power. Abilities Intelligence The Joker is highly intelligent, improvising and committing high endangerous crimes. He is also one stap ahead in front of the Gotham City Police and even Batman. Hand-to-Hand Combat The Joker can capably fight, as he has ease at defeating mob henchma, i.e. when he headslams Gambol's henchman to the table. Also, he held Batman on his own will during the near-climax. Category:Antagonist Category:Villains Category:Criminal Mastermind Category:The Dark Knight Characters Category:Characters